 |
(To Krumpholz, the violinist, when he informed Beethoven of the victory of Napoleon at Jena.)
162. "If I were a general and knew as much about strategy as I, a composer, know about counterpoint, I'd give you fellows something to do."
(Called out behind the back of a French officer, his fist doubled, on May 12, 1809, when the French had occupied Vienna. Reported by a witness, W. Rust.)
163. "Camillus, if I am not mistaken, was the name of the Roman who drove the wicked Gauls from Rome. At such a cost I would also take the name if I could drive them wherever I found them to where they belong."
(To Pleyel, publisher, in Paris, April, 1807.)
164. "I love most the realm of mind which, to me, is the highest of all spiritual and temporal monarchies."
(To Advocate Kauka in the summer of 1814. He had been speaking about the monarchs represented in the Congress of Vienna.)
165. "I shall not come in person, since that would be a sort of farewell, and farewells I have always avoided."
(January 24, 1818, to Giannatasio del Rio, on taking his nephew Karl out of the latter institute.)
166. "I hope still to bring a few large works into the world, and then, like an old child, to end my earthly career somewhere among good people."
(October 6, 1802, to Wegeler.)
167. "O ye men, who think or declare me to be hostile, morose or misanthropical, what injustice ye do me. Ye know not the secret cause of what thus appears to you. My heart and mind were from childhood disposed for the tender feelings of benevolence; I was always wishing to accomplish great deeds."
(October 6, 1802, in the so-called Heiligenstadt Will.)
168. "Divinity, thou lookest into my heart, thou knowest it, thou knowest that love for mankind and a desire to do good have their abode there. O ye men, when one day ye read this think that ye have wronged me, and may the unfortunate console himself with the thought that he has found one of his kind who, despite all the obstacles which nature put in his path, yet did all in his power to be accepted in the ranks of worthy artists and men!"
(From the Heiligenstadt Will.)
169. "I spend all my mornings with the muses;—and they bless me also in my walks."
(October 12, 1835, to his nephew Karl.)
170. "Concerning myself nothing,—that is, from nothing nothing."
(October 19, 1815, to Countess Erdody.)
[A possible allusion to the line, "Nothing can come of nothing." from Shakespeare's "King Lear," Act 1, scene 1]
171. "Beethoven can write, thank God; but do nothing else on earth."
(December 22, 1822, to Ferdinand Ries, in London.)
172. "Mentally I often frame an answer, but when I come to write it down I generally throw the pen aside, since I am not able to write what I feel."
(October 7, 1826, to his friend Wegeler, in Coblenz. "The better sort of people, I think, know me anyhow." He is excusing his laziness in letter-writing.)
173. "I have the gift to conceal my sensitiveness touching a multitude of things; but when I am provoked at a moment when I am more sensitive than usual to anger, I burst out more violently than anybody else."
(July 24, 1804, to Ries, in reporting to him a quarrel with Stephan von Breuning.)
174. "X. is completely changed since I threw half a dozen books at her head. Perhaps something of their contents accidentally got into her head or her wicked heart."
(To Mme. Streicher, who often had to put Beethoven's house in order.)
175. "I can have no intercourse, and do not want to have any, with persons who are not willing to believe in me because I have not yet made a wide reputation."
(To Prince Lobkowitz, about 1798. A cavalier had failed to show him proper respect in the Prince's salon.)
176. "Many a vigorous and unconsidered word drops from my mouth, for which reason I am considered mad."
(In the summer of 1880, to Dr. Muller, of Bremen, who was paying him a visit.)
177. "I will grapple with Fate; it shall not quite bear me down. O, it is lovely to live life a thousand times!"
(November 16, 1800, or 1801, to Wegeler.)
178. "Morality is the strength of men who distinguish themselves over others, and it is mine."
(In a communication to his friend, Baron Zmeskall.)
179. "I, too, am a king!"
(Said to Holz, when the latter begged him not to sell the ring which King Frederick William III, of Prussia, had sent to him instead of money or an order in return for the dedication of the ninth symphony. "Master, keep the ring," Holz had said, "it is from a king." Beethoven made his remark "with indescribable dignity and self-consciousness.")
[On his deathbed he said to little Gerhard von Breuning: "Know that I am an artist."]
[At the height of the popular infatuation for Rossini (1822) he said to his friends: "Well, they will not be able to rob me of my place in the history of art."]
180. "Prince, what you are you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am through my own efforts. There have been thousands of princes and will be thousands more; there is only one Beethoven!"
(According to tradition, from a letter which he wrote to Prince Lichnowsky when the latter attempted to persuade him to play for some French officers on his estate in Silesia. Beethoven went at night to Troppau, carrying the manuscript of the (so-called) "Appassionata" sonata, which suffered from the rain.)
181. "My nobility is here, and here (pointing to his heart and head)."
(Reported by Schindler. In the lawsuit against his sister-in-law (the mother of nephew Karl) Beethoven had been called on to prove that the "van" in his name was a badge of nobility.)
182. "You write that somebody has said that I am the natural son of the late King of Prussia. The same thing was said to me long ago, but I have made it a rule never to write anything about myself or answer anything that is said about me."
(October 7, 1826, to Wegeler.)
["I leave it to you to give the world an account of myself and especially my mother." The statement had appeared in Brockhaus's "Lexicon."]
183. "To me the highest thing, after God, is my honor."
(July 26, 1822, to the publisher Peters, in Leipzig.)
184. "I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must out; that is the reason why I compose."
(Remark to Karl Czerny, reported in his autobiography.)
185. "I do not desire that you shall esteem me greater as an artist, but better and more perfect as a man; when the condition of our country is somewhat better, then my art shall be devoted to the welfare of the poor."
(Vienna, June 29, 1800, to Wegeler, in Bonn, writing of his return to his native land.)
186. "Perhaps the only thing that looks like genius about me is that my affairs are not always in the best of order, and that in this respect nobody can be of help but myself."
(April 22, 1801, to Hofmeister, in Leipzig excusing himself for dilatoriness in sending him these compositions: the Pianoforte sonata op. 22, the symphony op. 21, the septet op. 20 and the concerto op. 19.)
187. "I am free from all small vanities. Only in the divine art is the lever which gives me power to sacrifice the best part of my life to the celestial muses."
(September 9, 1824, to George Nigeli, in Zurich.)
188. "Inasmuch as the purpose of the undersigned throughout his career has not been selfish but the promotion of the interests of art, the elevation of popular taste and the flight of his own genius toward loftier ideals and perfection, it was inevitable that he should frequently sacrifice his own advantages and profit to the muse."
(December, 1804, to the Director of the Court Theatre, applying for an engagement which was never effected.)
189. "From my earliest childhood my zeal to serve suffering humanity with my art was never content with any kind of a subterfuge; and no other reward is needed than the internal satisfaction which always accompanies such a deed."
(To Procurator Varenna, who had asked him for compositions to be played at a charity concert in Graz.)
190. "There is no greater pleasure for me than to practice and exhibit my art."
(November 16, 1800, or 1801, to Wegeler.)
191. "I recognize no other accomplishments or advantages than those which place one amongst the better class of men; where I find them, there is my home."
(Teplitz, July 17, 1812, to his little admirer, Emile M., in H.)
192. "From childhood I learned to love virtue, and everything beautiful and good."
(About 1808, to Frau Marie Bigot.)
193. "It is one of my foremost principles never to occupy any other relations than those of friendship with the wife of another man. I should never want to fill my heart with distrust towards those who may chance some day to share my fate with me, and thus destroy the loveliest and purest life for myself."
(About 1808, to Frau Marie Bigot, after she had declined his invitation to drive with him.)
194. "In my solitude here I miss my roommate, at least at evening and noon, when the human animal is obliged to assimilate that which is necessary to the production of the intellectual, and which I prefer to do in company with another."
(Teplitz, September 6, 1811, to Tiedge.)
195. "It was not intentional and premeditated malice which led me to act toward you as I did; it was my unpardonable carelessness."
(To Wegeler.)
196. "I am not bad; hot blood is my wickedness, my crime is youthfulness. I am not bad, really not bad; even though wild surges often accuse my heart, it still is good. To do good wherever we can, to love liberty above all things, and never to deny truth though it be at the throne itself.—Think occasionally of the friend who honors you."
(Written in the autograph album of a Herr Bocke.)
197. "It is a singular sensation to see and hear one's self praised, and then to be conscious of one's own imperfections as I am. I always regard such occasions as admonitions to get nearer the unattainable goal set for us by art and nature, hard as it may be."
(To Mdlle. de Girardi, who had sung his praises in a poem.)
198. "It is my sincere desire that whatever shall be said of me hereafter shall adhere strictly to the truth in every respect regardless of who may be hurt thereby, me not excepted."
(Reported by Schindler, who also relates that when Beethoven handed him documents to be used in the biography a week before his death, he said to him and Breuning: "But in all things severely the truth; for that I hold you to a strict accountability.")
199. "Now you can help me to find a wife. If you find a beautiful woman in F. who, mayhap, endows my music with a sigh,—but she must be no Elise Burger—make a provisional engagement. But she must be beautiful, for I can love only the beautiful; otherwise I might love myself."
(In 1809, to Baron von Gleichenstein. As for the personal reference it seems likely that Beethoven referred to Elise Burger, second wife of the poet G. August Burger, with whom he had got acquainted after she had been divorced and become an elocutionist.)
200. "Am I not a true friend? Why do you conceal your necessities from me? No friend of mine must suffer so long as I have anything."
(To Ferdinand Ries, in 1801. Ries's father had been kind to Beethoven on the death of his mother in 1787.)
201. "I would rather forget what I owe to myself than what I owe to others."
(To Frau Streicher, in the summer of 1817.)
202. "I never practice revenge. When I must antagonize others I do no more than is necessary to protect myself against them, or prevent them from doing further evil."
(To Frau Streicher, in reference to the troubles which his servants gave him, many of which, no doubt, were due to faults of his own, excusable in a man in his condition of health.)
203. "Be convinced that mankind, even in your case, will always be sacred to me."
(To Czapka, Magisterial Councillor, August, 1826, in the matter of his nephew's attempt at suicide.)
204. "H. is, and always will be, too weak for friendship, and I look upon him and Y. as mere instruments upon which I play when I feel like it; but they can never be witnesses of my internal and external activities, and just as little real participants. I value them according as they do me service."
(Summer of 1800, to the friend of his youth, Pastor Amenda. H. was probably the faithful Baron Zmeskall von Domanovecz.)
205. "If it amuses them to talk and write about me in that manner, let them go on."
(Reported by Schindler as referring to critics who had declared him ripe for the madhouse.)
206. "To your gentlemen critics I recommend a little more foresight and shrewdness, particularly in respect of the products of younger authors, as many a one, who might otherwise make progress, may be frightened off. So far as I am concerned I am far from thinking myself so perfect as not to be able to endure faulting; yet at the beginning the clamor of your critic was so debasing that I could scarcely discuss the matter when I compared myself with others, but had to remain quiet and think: they do not understand. I was the more able to remain quiet when I recalled how men were praised who signify little among those who know, and who have almost disappeared despite their good points. Well, pax vobiscum, peace to them and me,—I would never have mentioned a syllable had you not begun."
(April 22, 1801, to Breitkopf and Hartel, publishers of the "Allgemeine Musik Zeitung.")
207. "Who was happier than I when I could still pronounce the sweet word 'mother' and have it heard? To whom can I speak it now?"
(September 15, 1787, from Bonn to Dr. Schade, of Augsburg, who had aided him in his return journey from Vienna to Bonn. His mother had died on July 17, 1787.)
208. "I seldom go anywhere since it was always impossible for me to associate with people where there was not a certain exchange of ideas."
(February 15, 1817, to Brentano of Frankfurt.)
209. "Not a word about rest! I know of none except in sleep, and sorry enough am I that I am obliged to yield up more to it than formerly."
(November 16, 1801, or 1802, to Wegeler. In Homer's "Odyssey" Beethoven thickly underscored the words: "Too much sleep is injurious." XV, 393.)
210. "Rest assured that you are dealing with a true artist who likes to be paid decently, it is true, but who loves his own reputation and also the fame of his art; who is never satisfied with himself and who strives continually to make even greater progress in his art."
(November 23, 1809, to George Thomson, of Edinburgh, for whom Beethoven arranged the Scotch songs.)
211. "My motto is always: nulla die sine linea; and if I permit the muse to go to sleep it is only that she may awake strengthened."
(October 7, 1826, to Wegeler.)
212. "There is no treatise likely to be too learned for me. Without laying claim to real learning it is yet true that since my childhood I have striven to learn the minds of the best and wisest of every period of time. It is a disgrace for every artist who does not try to do as much."
(November 2, 1809, to Breitkopf and Hartel, of Leipzig.)
213. "Without wishing in the least to set myself up as an exemplar I assure you that I lived in a small and insignificant place, and made out of myself nearly all that I was there and am here;—this to your comfort in case you feel the need of making progress in art."
(Baden, July 6, 1804, to Herr Wiedebein, of Brunswick, who had asked if it was advisable for a music teacher and student to make his home in Vienna.)
214. "There is much on earth to be done,—do it soon! I must not continue my present everyday life,—art asks this sacrifice also. Take rest in diversion in order to work more energetically."
(Diary, 1814.)
215. "The daily grind exhausts me."
(Baden, August 23, 1823, to his nephew Karl.)
THE SUFFERER
216. "Compelled to be a philosopher as early as my 28th year;—it is not an easy matter,—more difficult for the artist than any other man."
(October 6, 1802; the Heiligenstadt Will.)
217. "Compelled to contemplate a lasting malady, born with an ardent and lively temperament, susceptible to the diversions of society, I was obliged at an early date to isolate myself and live a life of solitude."
(From the same.)
218. "It was impossible for me to say to others: speak louder; shout! for I am deaf. Ah! was it possible for me to proclaim a deficiency in that one sense which in my case ought to have been more perfect than in all others, which I had once possessed in greatest perfection, to a degree of perfection, indeed, which few of my profession have ever enjoyed?"
(From the same.)
219. "For me there can be no recreation in human society, refined conversation, mutual exchange of thoughts and feelings; only so far as necessity compels may I give myself to society,—I must live like an exile."
(From the same.)
220. "How great was the humiliation when one who stood beside me heard the distant sound of a shepherd's pipe, and I heard nothing; or heard the shepherd singing, and I heard nothing. Such experiences brought me to the verge of despair;—but little more and I should have put an end to my life. Art, art alone deterred me."
(From the same.)
221. "I may say that I live a wretched existence. For almost two years I have avoided all social gatherings because it is impossible for me to tell the people I am deaf. If my vocation were anything else it might be more endurable, but under the circumstances the condition is terrible; besides what would my enemies say,—they are not few in number! To give you an idea of this singular deafness let me tell you that in the theatre I must lean over close to the orchestra in order to understand the actor; if I am a little remote from them I do not hear the high tones of instruments and voices; it is remarkable that there are persons who have not observed it, but because I am generally absent-minded my conduct is ascribed to that."
(Vienna, June 29, 1800, to Wegeler. "To you only do I confide this as a secret." Concerning his deafness see Appendix.)
222. "My defective hearing appeared everywhere before me like a ghost; I fled from the presence of men, was obliged to appear to be a misanthrope although I am so little such."
(November 16, 1801, or 1800, to Wegeler, in writing to him about his happy love. "Unfortunately, she is not of my station in life.")
223. "Truly, a hard lot has befallen me! Yet I accept the decree of Fate, and continually pray to God to grant that as long as I must endure this death in life, I may be preserved from want."
(March 14, 1827, to Moscheles, after Beethoven had undergone the fourth operation for dropsy and was confronting the fifth. He died on March 26, 1827.)
224. "Live alone in your art! Restricted though you be by your defective sense, this is still the only existence for you."
(Diary, 1816.)
225. "Dissatisfied with many things, more susceptible than any other person and tormented by my deafness, I often find only suffering in the association with others."
(In 1815, to Brauchle, tutor in the house of Countess Erdody.)
226. "I have emptied a cup of bitter suffering and already won martyrdom in art through the kindness of art's disciples and my art associates."
(In the summer of 1814, to Advocate Kauka. "Socrates and Jesus were my exemplars," he remarks in a conversation-book of 1819.)
227. "Perfect the ear trumpets as far as possible, and then travel; this you owe to yourself, to mankind and to the Almighty! Only thus can you develop all that is still locked within you;—and a little court,—a little chapel,—writing the music and having it performed to the glory of the Almighty, the Eternal, the Infinite—-"
(Diary, 1815. Beethoven was hoping to receive an appointment as chapelmaster from his former pupil, Archduke Rudolph, Archbishop of Olmutz.)
228. "God help me. Thou seest me deserted by all mankind. I do not want to do wrong,—hear my prayer to be with my Karl in the future for which there seems to be no possibility now. O, harsh Fate, cruel destiny. No, my unhappy condition will never end. 'This I feel and recognize clearly: Life is not the greatest of blessings; but the greatest of evils is guilt.' (From Schiller's "Braut von Messina"). There is no salvation for you except to hasten away from here; only by this means can you lift yourself again to the heights of your art whereas you are here sinking to the commonplace,—and a symphony—and then away,—away,—meanwhile fund the salaries which can be done for years. Work during the summer preparatory to travel; only thus can you do the great work for your poor nephew; later travel through Italy, Sicily, with a few other artists."
(Diary, spring of 1817. The salaries were the annuities paid him for several years by Archduke Rudolph, Prince Rinsky and Prince Lobkowitz. Seume's "Spaziergang nach Syrakus" was a favorite book of Beethoven's and inspired him in a desire to make a similar tour, but nothing came of it.)
229. "You must not be a man like other men: not for yourself, only for others; for you there is no more happiness except in yourself, in your art.—O God, give me strength to overcome myself, nothing must hold me to this life."
(Beginning of the Diary, 1812-18.)
230. "Leave operas and all else alone, write only for your orphan, and then a cowl to close this unhappy life."
(Diary, 1816.)
231. "I have often cursed my existence; Plutarch taught me resignation. I shall, if possible, defy Fate, though there will be hours in my life when I shall be the most miserable of God's creatures. Resignation! What a wretched resort; yet it is the only one left me!"
(Vienna, June 29, 1800, to Wegeler.)
232. "Patience, they tell me, I must now choose for a guide. I have done so. It shall be my resolve, lastingly, I hope, to endure until it pleases the implacable Parca: to break the thread. There may be improvement,—perhaps not,—I am prepared."
(From the Heiligenstadt Will.)
233. "Let all that is called life be offered to the sublime and become a sanctuary of art. Let me live, even through artificial means, so they can be found."
(Diary, 1814, when Beethoven was being celebrated extraordinarily by the royalties and dignitaries gathered at the Congress of Vienna.)
234. "Ah! it seemed impossible for me to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt called upon to produce; and so I prolonged this wretched existence."
(From the Heiligenstadt Will.)
235. "With joy shall I hasten forward to meet death; if he comes before I shall have had an opportunity to develop all my artistic capabilities, he will come too early in spite of my harsh fate, and I shall probably wish him to come at a later date. But even then I shall be content, for will he not release me from endless suffering? Come when you please, I shall meet you bravely."
(From the Heiligenstadt Will.)
236. "Apollo and the muses will not yet permit me to be delivered over to the grim skeleton, for I owe them so much, and I must, on any departure for the Elysian Fields, leave behind me all that the spirit has inspired and commanded to be finished."
(September 17, 1824, to Schott, music publisher in Mayence.)
237. "Had I not read somewhere that it is not pending man to part voluntarily from his life so long as there is a good deed which he can perform, I should long since have been no more, and by my own hand. O, how beautiful life is, but in my case it is poisoned."
(May 2, 1810, to his friend Wegeler, to whom he is lamenting over "the demon that has set up his habitat in my ears.")
238. "I must abandon wholly the fond hope, which I brought hither, to be cured at least in a degree. As the fallen autumn leaves have withered, so are now my hopes blighted. I depart in almost the same condition in which I came; even the lofty courage which often animated me in the beautiful days of summer has disappeared."
(From the Will. Beethoven had tried the cure at Heiligenstadt.)
239. "All week long I had to suffer and endure like a saint. Away with this rabble! What a reproach to our civilization that we need what we despise and must always know it near!"
(In 1825, complaining of the misery caused by his domestics.)
240. "The best thing to do not to think of your malady is to keep occupied."
(Diary, 1812-18.)
241. "It is no comfort for men of the better sort to say to them that others also suffer; but, alas! comparisons must always be made, though they only teach that we all suffer, that is err, only in different ways."
(In 1816, to Countess Erdody, on the death of her son.)
242. "The portraits of Handel, Bach, Gluck, Mozart and Haydn in my room,—they may help me to make claim on toleration."
(Diary, 1815-16.)
243. "God, who knows my innermost soul, and knows how sacredly I have fulfilled all the duties but upon me as man by humanity, God and nature will surely some day relieve me from these afflictions."
(July 18, 1821, to Archduke Rudolph, from Unterubling.)
244. "Friendship and similar sentiments bring only wounds to me. Well, so be it; for you, poor Beethoven, there is no outward happiness; you must create it within you,—only in the world of ideality shall you find friends."
(About 1808, to Baron von Gleichenstein, by whom he thought himself slighted.)
245. "You are living on a quiet sea, or already in the safe harbor; you do not feel the distress of a friend out in the raging storm,—or you must not feel it."
(In 1811, to his friend Gleichenstein, when Beethoven was in love with the Baron's sister-in-law, Therese Malfatti.)
246. "I must have a confidant at my side lest life become a burden."
(July 4, 1812, to Count Brunswick, whom he is urging to make a tour with him, probably to Teplitz.)
247. "Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men. At my age I need a certain uniformity and equableness of life; can such exist in our relationship?"
(June 7, 1800 (?), to the "Immortal Beloved.")
248. "O Providence! vouchsafe me one day of pure joy! Long has the echo of perfect felicity been absent from my heart. When O, when, O Thou Divine One, shall I feel it again in nature's temple and man's? Never? Ah! that would be too hard!"
(Conclusion of the Heiligenstadt Will.)
WORLDLY WISDOM
249. "Freedom,—progress, is purpose in the art-world as in universal creation, and if we moderns have not the hardihood of our ancestors, refinement of manners has surely accomplished something."
(Middling, July 29, 1819, to Archduke Rudolph.)
250. "The boundaries are not yet fixed which shall call out to talent and industry: thus far and no further!"
(Reported by Schindler.)
251. "You know that the sensitive spirit must not be bound to miserable necessities."
(In the summer of 1814, to Johann Kauka, the advocate who represented him in the prosecution of his claims against the heirs of Prince Kinsky.)
252. "Art, the persecuted one, always finds an asylum. Did not Daedalus, shut up in the labyrinth, invent the wings which carried him out into the open air? O, I shall find them, too, these wings!"
(February 19, 1812, to Zmeskall, when, in 1811, by decree of the Treasury, the value of the Austrian currency was depreciated one-fifth, and the annuity which Beethoven received from Archduke Rudolph and the Princes Lobkowitz and Kinsky reduced to 800 florins.)
253. "Show me the course where at the goal there stands the palm of victory! Lend sublimity to my loftiest thoughts, bring to them truths that shall live forever!"
(Diary, 1814, while working on "Fidelio.")
254. "Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time; therefore never put off till tomorrow what you can do today."
(From the notes in Archduke Rudolph's instruction book.)
255. "This is the mark of distinction of a truly admirable man: steadfastness in times of trouble."
(Diary, 1816.)
256. "Courage, so it be righteous, will gain all things."
(April, 1815, to Countess Erdody.)
257. "Force, which is a unit, will always prevail against the majority which is divided."
(Conversation-book, 1819.)
258. "Kings and Princes can create professors and councillors, and confer orders and decorations; but they can not create great men, spirits that rise above the earthly rabble; these they can not create, and therefore they are to be respected."
(August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.)
259. "Man, help yourself!"
(Written under the words: "Fine, with the help of God," which Moscheles had written at the end of a pianoforte arrangement of a portion of "Fidelio.")
260. "If I could give as definite expression to my thoughts about my illness as to my thoughts in music, I would soon help myself."
(September, 1812, to Amalie Sebald, a patient at the cure in Teplitz.)
261. "Follow the advice of others only in the rarest cases."
(Diary, 1816.)
262. "The moral law in us, and the starry sky above us."—Kant.
(Conversation-book, February, 1820.)
[Literally the passage in Kant's "Critique of Practical Reason" reads as follows: "Two things fill the soul with ever new and increasing wonder and reverence the oftener the mind dwells upon them:—the starry sky above me and the moral law in me."]
263. "Blessed is he who has overcome all passions and then proceeds energetically to perform his duties under all circumstances careless of success! Let the motive lie in the deed, not in the outcome. Be not one of those whose spring of action is the hope of reward. Do not let your life pass in inactivity. Be industrious, do your duty, banish all thoughts as to the results, be they good or evil; for such equanimity is attention to intellectual things. Seek an asylum only in Wisdom; for he who is wretched and unhappy is so only in consequence of things. The truly wise man does not concern himself with the good and evil of this world. Therefore endeavor diligently to preserve this use of your reason—for in the affairs of this world, such a use is a precious art."
(Diary. Though essentially in the language of Beethoven there is evidence that the passage was inspired by something that he had read.)
264. "The just man must be able also to suffer injustice without deviating in the least from the right course."
(To the Viennese magistrate in the matter of Karl's education.)
265. "Man's humility towards man pains me; and yet when I consider myself in connection with the universe, what am I and what is he whom we call the greatest? And yet here, again, lies the divine element in man."
(To the "Immortal Beloved," July 6 (1800?).)
266. "Only the praise of one who has enjoyed praise can give pleasure."
(Conversation-book, 1825.)
267. "Nothing is more intolerable than to be compelled to accuse one's self of one's own errors."
(Teplitz, September 6, 1811, to Tiedge. Beethoven regrets that through his own fault he had not made Tiedge's acquaintance on an earlier opportunity.)
268. "What greater gift can man receive than fame, praise and immortality?"
(Diary, 1816-17. After Pliny, Epist. III.)
269. "Frequently it seems as if I should almost go mad over my undeserved fame; fortune seeks me out and I almost fear new misfortune on that account."
(July, 1810, to his friend Zmeskall. "Every day there come new inquiries from strangers, new acquaintances new relationships.")
270. "The world must give one recognition,—it is not always unjust. I care nothing for it because I have a higher goal."
(August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.)
271. "I have the more turned my gaze upwards; but for our own sakes and for others we are obliged to turn our attention sometimes to lower things; this, too, is a part of human destiny."
(February 8, 1823, to Zelter, with whom he is negotiating the sale of a copy of the Mass in D.)
272. "Why so many dishes? Man is certainly very little higher than the other animals if his chief delights are those of the table."
(Reported by J. A. Stumpff, in the "Harmonicon" of 1824. He dined with Beethoven in Baden.)
273. "Whoever tells a lie is not pure of heart, and such a person can not cook a clean soup."
(To Mme. Streicher, in 1817, or 1818, after having dismissed an otherwise good housekeeper because she had told a falsehood to spare his feelings.)
274. "Vice walks through paths full of present lusts and persuades many to follow it. Virtue pursues a steep path and is less seductive to mankind, especially if at another place there are persons who call them to a gently declining road."
(Diary, 1815.)
275. "Sensual enjoyment without a union of soul is bestial and will always remain bestial."
(Diary, 1812-18.)
276. "Men are not only together when they are with each other; even the distant and the dead live with us."
(To Therese Malfatti, later Baroness von Drossdick, to whom in the country he sent Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister" and Schlegel's translation of Shakespeare.)
277. "There is no goodness except the possession of a good soul, which may be seen in all things, from which one need not seek to hide."
(August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.)
278. "The foundation of friendship demands the greatest likeness of human souls and hearts."
(Baden, July 24, 1804, to Ries, describing his quarrel with Breuning.)
279. "True friendship can rest only on the union of like natures."
(Diary, 1812-18.)
280. "The people say nothing; they are merely people. As a rule they only see themselves in others, and what they see is nothing; away with them! The good and the beautiful needs no people,—it exists without outward help, and this seems to be the reason of our enduring friendship."
(September 16, 1812, to Amalie Sebald, in Teplitz, who had playfully called him a tyrant.)
281. "Look, my dear Ries; these are the great connoisseurs who affect to be able to judge of any piece of music so correctly and keenly. Give them but the name of their favorite,—they need no more!"
(To his pupil Ries, who had, as a joke, played a mediocre march at a gathering at Count Browne's and announced it to be a composition by Beethoven. When the march was praised beyond measure Beethoven broke out into a grim laugh.)
282. "Do not let all men see the contempt which they deserve; we do not know when we may need them."
(Note in the Diary of 1814, after having had an unpleasant experience with his "friend" Bertolini. "Henceforth never step inside his house; shame on you to ask anything from such an one.")
283. "Our Time stands in need of powerful minds who will scourge these petty, malicious and miserable scoundrels,—much as my heart resents doing injury to a fellow man."
(In 1825, to his nephew, in reference to the publication of a satirical canon on the Viennese publisher, Haslinger, by Schott, of Mayence.)
284. "Today is Sunday. Shall I read something for you from the Gospels? 'Love ye one another!'"
(To Frau Streicher.)
285. "Hate reacts on those who nourish it."
(Diary, 1812-18.)
286. "When friends get into a quarrel it is always best not to call in an intermediary, but to have friend turn to friend direct."
(Vienna, November 2, 1793, to Eleonore von Breuning, of Bonn.)
287. "There are reasons for the conduct of men which one is not always willing to explain, but which, nevertheless, are based on ineradicable necessity."
(In 1815, to Brauchle.)
288. "I was formerly inconsiderate and hasty in the expression of my opinions, and thereby I made enemies. Now I pass judgment on no one, and, indeed, for the reason that I do not wish to do any one harm. Moreover, in the last instance I always think: if it is something decent it will maintain itself in spite of all attack and envy; if there is nothing good and sound at the bottom of it, it will fall to pieces of itself, bolster it up as one may."
(In a conversation with Tomaschek, in October, 1814.)
289. "Even the most sacred friendship may harbor secrets, but you ought not to misinterpret the secret of a friend because you can not guess it."
(About 1808, to Frau Marie Bigot.)
290. "You are happy; it is my wish that you remain so, for every man is best placed in his sphere."
(Bonn, July 13, 1825, to his brother Johann, landowner in Gneisendorf.)
291. "One must not measure the cost of the useful."
(To his nephew Karl in a discussion touching the purchase of an expensive book.)
292. "It is not my custom to prattle away my purposes, since every intention once betrayed is no longer one's own."
(To Frau Streicher.)
293. "How stupidity and wretchedness always go in pairs!"
(Diary, 1817.)
[Beethoven was greatly vexed by his servants.]
294. "Hope nourishes me; it nourishes half the world, and has been my neighbor all my life, else what had become of me!"
(August 11, 1810, to Bettina von Arnim.)
295. "Fortune is round like a globe, hence, naturally, does not always fall on the noblest and best."
(Vienna, July 29, 1800, to Wegeler.)
296. "Show your power, Fate! We are not our own masters; what is decided must be,—and so be it!"
(Diary, 1818.)
297. "Eternal Providence omnisciently directs the good and evil fortunes of mortal men."
(Diary, 1818.)
298. "With tranquility, O God, will I submit myself to changes, and place all my trust in Thy unalterable mercy and goodness."
(Diary, 1818.)
299. "All misfortune is mysterious and greatest when viewed alone; discussed with others it seems more endurable because one becomes entirely familiar with the things one dreads, and feels as if one had overcome it."
(Diary, 1816.)
300. "One must not flee for protection to poverty against the loss of riches, nor to a lack of friendship against the loss of friends, nor by abstention from procreation against the death of children, but to reason against everything."
(Diary, 1816.)
301. "I share deeply with you the righteous sorrow over the death of your wife. It seems to me that such a parting, which confronts nearly every married man, ought to keep one in the ranks of the unmarried."
(May 20, 1811, to Gottfried Hartel, of Leipzig.)
302. "He who is afflicted with a malady which he can not alter, but which gradually brings him nearer and nearer to death, without which he would have lived longer, ought to reflect that murder or another cause might have killed him even more quickly."
(Diary, 1812-18.)
303. "We finite ones with infinite souls are born only for sorrows and joy and it might almost be said that the best of us receive joy through sorrow."
(October 19, 1815, to Countess Erdody.)
304. "He is a base man who does not know how to die; I knew it as a boy of fifteen."
(In the spring of 1816, to Miss Fanny Giannatasio del Rio, when Beethoven felt ill and spoke of dying. It is not known that he was ever near death in his youth.)
305. "A second and third generation recompenses me three and fourfold for the ill-will which I had to endure from my former contemporaries."
(Copied into his Diary from Goethe's "West-ostlicher Divan.")
306.
"My hour at last is come; Yet not ingloriously or passively I die, but first will do some valiant deed, Of which mankind shall hear in after time."—Homer.
("The Iliad" [Bryant's translation], Book XXII, 375-378.)
(Copied into his Diary, 1815.)
307. "Fate gave man the courage of endurance."
(Diary, 1814.)
308.
"Portia—How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world."
(Marked in his copy of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice.")
309.
"And on the day that one becomes a slave, The Thunderer, Jove, takes half his worth away."—Homer.
("The Odyssey" [Bryant's translation], Book XVII, 392-393. Marked by Beethoven.)
310.
"Short is the life of man, and whoso bears A cruel heart, devising cruel things, On him men call down evil from the gods While living, and pursue him, when he dies, With scoffs. But whoso is of generous heart And harbors generous aims, his guests proclaim His praises far and wide to all mankind, And numberless are they who call him good."—Homer.
("The Odyssey" [Bryant's translation], Book XIX, 408-415. Copied into his diary, 1818.)
GOD
Beethoven was through and through a religious man, though not in the confessional sense. Reared in the Catholic faith he early attained to an independent opinion on religious things. It must be borne in mind that his youth fell in the period of enlightenment and rationalism. When at a later date he composed the grand Mass in honor of his esteemed pupil Archduke Rudolph,—he hoped to obtain from him a chapelmastership when the Archduke became Archbishop of Olmutz, but in vain,—he gave it forms and dimensions which deviated from the ritual.
In all things liberty was the fundamental principle of Beethoven's life. His favorite book was Sturm's "Observations Concerning God's Works in Nature" (Betrachtungen uber die Werke Gottes in der Natur), which he recommended to the priests for wide distribution among the people. He saw the hand of God in even the most insignificant natural phenomenon. God was to him the Supreme Being whom he had jubilantly hymned in the choral portion of the Ninth Symphony in the words of Schiller: "Brothers, beyond you starry canopy there must dwell a loving Father!" Beethoven's relationship to God was that of a child toward his loving father to whom he confides all his joys as well as sorrows.
It is said that once he narrowly escaped excommunication for having said that Jesus was only a poor human being and a Jew. Haydn, ingenuously pious, is reported to have called Beethoven an atheist.
He consented to the calling in of a priest on his death-bed. Eye-witnesses testify that the customary function was performed most impressively and edifyingly and that Beethoven expressed his thanks to the officiating priest with heartiness. After he had left the room Beethoven said to his friends: "Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est," the phrase with which antique dramas were concluded. From this fact the statement has been made that Beethoven wished to characterize the sacrament of extreme unction as a comedy. This is contradicted, however, by his conduct during its administration. It is more probable that he wished to designate his life as a drama; in this sense, at any rate, the words were accepted by his friends. Schindler says emphatically: "The last days were in all respects remarkable, and he looked forward to death with truly Socratic wisdom and peace of mind."
[I append a description of the death scene as I found it in the notebooks of A. W. Thayer which were placed in my hands for examination after the death of Beethoven's greatest biographer in 1897:
"June 5, 1860, I was in Graz and saw Huttenbrenner (Anselm) who gave me the following particulars: ...In the winter of 1826-27 his friends wrote him from Vienna, that if he wished to see Beethoven again alive he must hurry thither from Graz. He hastened to Vienna, arriving a few days before Beethoven's death. Early in the afternoon of March 26, Huttenbrenner went into the dying man's room. He mentioned as persons whom he saw there, Stephen v. Breuning and Gerhard, Schindler, Telscher and Carl's mother (this seems to be a mistake, i.e. if Mrs. v. Beethoven is right). Beethoven had then long been senseless. Telscher began drawing the dying face of Beethoven. This grated on Breuning's feelings, and he remonstrated with him, and he put up his papers and left (?).
"Then Breuning and Schindler left to go out to Wohring to select a grave. (Just after the five—I got this from Breuning himself—when it grew dark with the sudden storm Gerhard, who had been standing at the window, ran home to his teacher.)
"Afterward Gerhard v. B. went home, and there remained in the room only Huttenbrenner and Mrs. van Beethoven. The storm passed over, covering the Glacis with snow and sleet. As it passed away a flash of lightning lighted up everything. This was followed by an awful clap of thunder. Huttenbrenner had been sitting on the side of the bed sustaining Beethoven's head—holding it up with his right arm His breathing was already very much impeded, and he had been for hours dying. At this startling, awful peal of thunder, the dying man suddenly raised his head from Huttenbrenner's arm, stretched out his own right arm majestically—like a general giving orders to an army. This was but for an instant; the arm sunk back; he fell back. Beethoven was dead.
"Another talk with Huttenbrenner. It seems that Beethoven was at his last gasp, one eye already closed. At the stroke of lightning and the thunder peal he raised his arm with a doubled-up fist; the expression of his eyes and face was that of one defying death,—a look of defiance and power of resistance.
"He must have had his arm under the pillow. I must ask him.
"I did ask him; he had his arm around B.'s neck." H. E. K.]
311. "I am that which is. I am all that was, that is, and that shall be. No mortal man has ever lifted the veil of me. He is solely of himself, and to this Only One all things owe their existence."
(Beethoven's creed. He had found it in Champollion's "The Paintings of Egypt," where it is set down as an inscription on a temple to the goddess Neith. Beethoven had his copy framed and kept it constantly before him on his writing desk. "The relic was a great treasure in his eyes"—Schindler.)
312. "Wrapped in the shadows of eternal solitude, in the impenetrable darkness of the thicket, impenetrable, immeasurable, unapproachable, formlessly extended. Before spirit was breathed (into things) his spirit was, and his only. As mortal eyes (to compare finite and infinite things) look into a shining mirror."
(Copied, evidently, from an unidentified work, by Beethoven; though possibly original with him.)
313. "It was not the fortuitous meeting of the chordal atoms that made the world; if order and beauty are reflected in the constitution of the universe, then there is a God."
(Diary, 1816.)
314. "He who is above,—O, He is, and without Him there is nothing."
(Diary.)
315. "Go to the devil with your 'gracious Sir!' There is only one who can be called gracious, and that is God."
(About 1824 or 1825, to Rampel, a copyist, who, apparently, had been a little too obsequious in his address to Beethoven. [As is customary among the Viennese to this day. H. E. K.])
316. "What is all this compared with the great Tonemaster above! above! above! and righteously the Most High, whereas here below all is mockery,—dwarfs,—and yet Most High!!"
(To Schott, publisher in Mayence, in 1822—the same year in which Beethoven copied the Egyptian inscription.)
317. "There is no loftier mission than to approach the Divinity nearer than other men, and to disseminate the divine rays among mankind."
(August, 1823, to Archduke Rudolph.)
318. "Heaven rules over the destiny of men and monsters (literally, human and inhuman beings), and so it will guide me, too, to the better things of life."
(September 11, 1811, to the poet Elsie von der Recke.)
319. "It's the same with humanity; here, too (in suffering), he must show his strength, i.e. endure without knowing or feeling his nullity, and reach his perfection again for which the Most High wishes to make us worthy."
(May 13, 1816, to Countess Erdody, who was suffering from incurable lameness.)
320. "Religion and thorough-bass are settled things concerning which there should be no disputing."
(Reported by Schindler.)
331. "All things flowed clear and pure out of God. Though often darkly led to evil by passion, I returned, through penance and purification to the pure fountain,—to God,—and to your art. In this I was never impelled by selfishness; may it always be so. The trees bend low under the weight of fruit, the clouds descend when they are filled with salutary rains, and the benefactors of humanity are not puffed up by their wealth."
(Diary, 1815. The first portion seems to be a quotation, but Beethoven continues after the dash most characteristically in his own words and a change of person.)
322. "God is immaterial, and for this reason transcends every conception. Since He is invisible He can have no form. But from what we observe in His work we may conclude that He is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent."
(Copied, with the remark: "From Indian literature" from an unidentified work, into the Diary of 1816.)
323. "In praise of Thy goodness I must confess that Thou didst try with all Thy means to draw me to Thee. Sometimes it pleased Thee to let me feel the heavy hand of Thy displeasure and to humiliate my proud heart by manifold castigations. Sickness and misfortune didst Thou send upon me to turn my thoughts to my errantries.—One thing, only, O Father, do I ask: cease not to labor for my betterment. In whatsoever manner it be, let me turn to Thee and become fruitful in good works."
(Copied into the Diary from Sturm's book, "Observations Concerning the Works of God in Nature.")
APPENDIX
Some observations may finally be acceptable touching Beethoven's general culture to which the thoughts of the reader must naturally have been directed by the excerpts from his writings set forth in the preceding pages. His own words betray the fact that he was not privileged to enjoy a thorough school-training and was thus compelled to the end of his days to make good the deficiencies in his learning. As a lad at Bonn he had attended the so-called Tirocinium, a sort of preparatory school for the Gymnasium, and acquired a small knowledge of Latin. Later he made great efforts to acquire French, a language essential to intercourse in the upper circles of society. He never established intimate relations with the rules of German. He used small initials for substantives, or capitalized verbs and adjectives according as they appeared important to him. His punctuation was arbitrary; generally he drew a perpendicular line between his words, letting it suffice for a comma or period as the case might be (a proceeding which adds not a little to the embarrassments of him who seeks to translate his sometimes mystical utterances).
It is said that a man's bookcase bears evidence of his education and intellectual interests. Beethoven also had books,—not many, but a characteristic collection. From his faithful friend and voluntary servant Schindler we have a report on this subject. Of the books of which he was possessed at the time of his death there have been preserved four volumes of translations of Shakespeare's works, Homer's "Odyssey" in the translation of J. H. Voss, Sturm's "Observations" (several times referred to in the preceding pages), and Goethe's "West-ostlicher Divan." These books are frequently marked and annotated in lead pencil, thus bearing witness to the subjects which interested Beethoven. From them, and volumes which he had borrowed, many passages were copied by him into his daily journal. Besides these books Schindler mentions Homer's "Iliad," Goethe's poems, "Wilhelm Melster" and "Faust," Schiller's dramas and poems, Tiedge's "Urania," volumes of poems by Matthisson and Seume, and Nina d'Aubigny's "Letters to Natalia on Singing,"—a book to which Beethoven attached great value. These books have disappeared, as well as others which Beethoven valued. We do not know what became of the volumes of Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch and Xenophon, or the writings of Pliny, Euripides, Quintilian, Ovid, Horace, Ossian, Milton and Thomson, traces of which are found in Beethoven's utterances.
The catalogue made for the auction sale of his posthumous effects on September 7, 1827, included forty-four works of which the censorship seized five as prohibited writings, namely, Seume's "Foot Journey to Syracuse," the Apocrypha, Kotzebue's "On the Nobility," W.E. Muller's "Paris in its Zenith" (1816), and "Views on Religion and Ecclesiasticism." Burney's "General History of Music" was also in his library, the gift, probably of an English admirer.
In his later years Beethoven was obliged to use the oft-quoted "conversation-books" in his intercourse with friends and strangers alike who wrote down their questions. Of these little books Schindler preserved no less than 134, which are now in the Royal Library in Berlin. Naturally Beethoven answered the written questions orally as a rule. An idea of Beethoven's opinions can occasionally be gathered from the context of the questions, but frequently we are left in the dark.
Beethoven's own characterization of his deafness as "singular" is significant. Often, even in his later years, he was able to hear a little and for a time. One might almost speak of a periodical visitation of the "demon." In his biography Marx gives the following description of the malady: "As early as 1816 it is found that he is incapable of conducting his own works; in 1824 he could not hear the storm of applause from a great audience; but in 1822 he still improvises marvelously in social circles; in 1826 he studies their parts in the Ninth Symphony and Solemn Mass with Sontag and Ungher, and in 1825 he listens critically to a performance of the quartet in A-minor, op. 132."
It is to be assumed that in such urgent cases his willpower temporarily gave new tension to the gradually atrophying aural nerves (it is said that he was still able to hear single or a few voices with his left ear but could not apprehend masses), but this was not the case in less important moments, as the conversation-books prove. In these books a few answers are also written down, naturally enough in cases not intended for the ears of strangers. At various times Beethoven kept a diary in which he entered his most intimate thoughts, especially those designed for his own encouragement. Many of these appear in the preceding pages. In these instances more than in any others his expressions are obscure, detached and, through indifference, faulty in construction. For the greater part they are remarks thrown upon the paper in great haste.
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